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How to present stative complements in serial-verb construction?
asked Feb 28, 2018 in Questions about Chinese Grammar by admin (25,540 points) | 195 views

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Since a stative complement is not allowed to follow the undergoer NP after a transitive verb, a reduplication is generated to avoid a sequence of two complements. Hence, it appears that the undergoer NP and the stative complement each immediately follows a verb.

→ 他打球打得好 (t¯a d˘a qi´u d˘a de h˘ao/ He plays the (ball) game well.)

→ 他寫論文寫好了 (t¯a xiˇe l`unw´en xiˇe h˘ao le/ He had done the essay.)

Reference: Chinese: a linguistic introduction by Chao Fen Sun

answered Feb 28, 2018 by admin (25,540 points)
edited Apr 26, 2018 by admin

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